The Lesson of the Las Vegas Horror

I was talking with a friend at work this week about the Las Vegas atrocity. Like everyone else in America, we both remain stunned by such a horrifying and cowardly taking of human life.

My friend, deeply disturbed by it all, said, “Are we all capable of such a thing?” I thought a moment and said, “I think we may be.” He put his hands over his face and said, “Oh God, I don’t want to hear THAT!”

I don’t want to hear it either, but he asked an important question. How does a seemingly rational person do what Stephen Paddock did? He was apparently not previously some deranged serial killer. We now know he seemed to have a pretty normal life. It is said he was not friendly or engaging, but there is no indication he was the monster he turned out to be.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the famous creator of the Sherlock Holmes series, a trained physician and himself a serious student of human behavior, once commented about the puzzling conduct of criminals. He said, “The most winning woman I ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little children for their insurance money, and the most repellent man of my acquaintance is a philanthropist who has spent nearly a quarter of a million dollars upon the London poor.”

Evil committed by seemingly good people, and good committed by seemingly evil people is not new.

The Las Vegas massacre, though, defies understanding. Even if someone uncovers some massive psychological aberration, some horrific psychosis in Mr. Paddock, we still stagger under the weight of such inhuman cruelty. And for what motive? Nothing could ever explain away the waste and loss of human life he inflicted.

There are two areas of our humanity that we often fear to explore in any depth. One is the door to the unknown within us, the door into the dark places of our existence, what Jung called our shadow side, which he said grows darker and more sinister if we fail to bring it to consciousness. Although I truly believe in the innate goodness of all people, I also believe there is in some sense the capacity in all of us to do terrible things as the result of deep inner wounds, abuse, neglect, brutality, and disease. And over the centuries we have sought to find ways to prevent them from happening.

It was once thought religion, education, culture, or intelligence would keep people from their worst urges. But history parades a long trail of ugly human debris where these areas failed to keep people from obsessive hate, crude violence, and vicious acts of inhumanity.

The other area we basically ignore is the reality of death.

In American society, we fight with ferocious denial any awareness of our mortality, any sense of our human end. We do not want to consider how vulnerable we are to dying. The human body is a phenomenal formation of cells, muscles, organs, and functions. And yet, it can all shut down in an instant. A deadly virus, a small breakaway blood clot, a systemic infection, complications of the flu, an elevated blood pressure, a car crash, a fall, and of course a bullet can end us in seconds.

We rarely prepare for death. We push it out of our minds. We think only of living, as though life lasts forever. The mass murder of concert goers in Las Vegas reminded us how quickly it can all be over.

The ancient rabbis taught that when we reach a point where we are unable to make sense of life, it is time to reflect on what we know to be true. In this instance, it’s that humans are capable of unspeakable acts of violence, and, death is never far from any of us.

Knowing these realities must not paralyze us in fear and dread, but rather, keep us humble, aware, grateful, and hopefully, help all of us work harder at being more loving and human.

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The Unclad Soul

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